Sin #10: Two Brit Flicks by Wright

It sometimes feels like the world is filled with zombies. After all, aren’t they the ones that are cuing on Tesco (a British supermarket) for their groceries?

Shaun lives with a couple of flat mates, works at an electronic shop and spends his weekends at a pub sitting with his girlfriend Liz and her friends. He’s such absent- minded however that he doesn’t notice Liz has had it with him and wants to move on. He also fails to realize that the world has been overrun by zombies (fortunately, he eventually notices).

“Shaun of the Dead” comes billed as the first zom-rom-com (or zombie romantic comedy). And even though it’s very funny, it isn’t a parody of zombie movies since it takes its zombie invasion very seriously indeed. The brilliance of the film comes from the wit of the comedic team of director Edgar Wright and actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (with the help of a superb cast that includes the invaluable Bill Nighy as Shaun’s stepdad).

Wright, Pegg and Frost previously worked together on a brilliant TV show called “Spaced” that became somewhat of a cult favorite. It features the same sort of humor based on pop reference and geek fandom (on the series Pegg is a devoted “Star Wars” fan whose heart gets crushed after watching episode I, a “toy-advert” for a movie, as he calls it).

With Shaun, it feels that they bring “geekdom” to the mainstream. Even if most of the audience lose themselves in the references, they will certainly relate to Shaun’s laziness but gentle heart, his friendship with Ed and his love for Liz.

For their second collaboration, they went straight to the gut of mainstream entertainment by delivering a kick-ass action movie that was equally exciting and funny. For “Hot Fuzz” Pegg switched gears and became a super-cop that has the best record in his precinct. He’s so good he’s making everybody look bad, so he gets sent to the small town of Sandford, apparently the happiest and quietest village in the country…apparently.

It’s pretty obvious Wright is turning the action genre in its head, especially the movies of Michael Bay by delivering characters aware of every cliché (one of the cops is a movie buff that loves “Point Break” and “Bad Boys II”). With this approach he has made one of the smartest in a while.

“Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz” are two endlessly inventive and funny “genre” films and certain proof that mainstream isn’t always bad.